ABOUT THE TRUST

Music is part of who we are

The Gibraltar Music Trust is a registered charity that wants every child in Gibraltar to have the chance to pick up a real instrument and find out what they can do with it, whatever their family can afford.

OUR STORY

How it started

The Trust was founded by music educator Lili Olivero, from a simple belief: the cost of an instrument should never be the reason a child does not get the chance to discover music.

We were registered as a charity in Gibraltar on 9 June 2026 and launched publicly in September 2026 with our first campaign, Donate an Instrument.

Before launching, we met the Minister for Education and the Director of Education, who welcomed the Trust's aims and its work in Gibraltar's schools. Working with the Department of Education, we've identified 20 music classrooms across Gibraltar's mainstream schools to equip with orchestral instruments, from nursery and early years upwards.

The idea is simple. Once equipped, those classrooms give children free access to strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, so they can see, touch, hear and try instruments they might otherwise never come across.

“You simply don't know whether you are a violin person, a clarinet person, a trumpet person or perhaps a percussion person unless you are given the opportunity to try these instruments during your early education years.”

The instruments stay the property of the Trust as a shared community collection. We catalogue every one, keep track of where it is and how it's being used, and make sure it can be maintained, repaired and passed on as needs change, so one donated instrument can help many children over its lifetime.

Our first campaign, Donate an Instrument, is a Gibraltar-wide appeal for the instruments sitting unused in homes, cupboards and storage. Local businesses and the wider community can also sponsor new instruments for our schools. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment Band and Corps of Drums has offered its band room to store donations in these early stages, along with practical help assessing and repairing them.

And there's a bigger dream behind it all. If children discover a violin, cello, flute or clarinet in nursery or primary school and keep playing, we could see thriving school orchestras across Gibraltar and, in time, perhaps a home-grown Gibraltar orchestra of musicians who first found their instrument in one of our own classrooms.

WHO WE ARE

Lili Olivero

Founder and Trustee

Lili was born in London and began learning the piano at the age of three. At Rosary Priory High School she played piano in assembly, served as music coordinator and was voted Head Girl. Having finished her piano grades, she was asked to take over a music class while the teacher was off sick: her first taste of teaching. She has taught piano, voice and music theory since 1988 and holds the ABRSM Certificate of Teaching (CTABRSM). Over the years she has been invited to teach in schools, direct choirs and orchestras, compose for film and record in London studios. She made Gibraltar her home in 2000 and taught music at Sacred Heart Middle School from 2004 to 2008. Since 2016 the Lili Olivero Music Academy at Prior Park School Gibraltar has offered one-to-one lessons during the school day, and it continues today. She has completed safeguarding training in Gibraltar.

In 2004, just after the birth of her third child, Lili founded the Gibraltar National Choir, which she directed until 2018, performing everything from classical and opera to stage, screen and pop in Gibraltar, London and Spain: from St Michael's Cave, Gibraltar's cathedrals and National Day in Casemates Square to the Royal Albert Hall. She has recorded albums including Misa Criolla and the Gibraltar National Anthem, and composed the score for the 2016 film A Minor Indiscretion.

Lili also founded Green Wave, Gibraltar's Eco Loyalty Card, winner of the GFSB Business Innovation Award 2024 and Best Green Product at the Nautilus Sustainability Awards 2024. She received the Environmental Contribution Award at Ladies That Rock The Rock 2025. The Gibraltar Music Trust brings her two passions together: music, and improving the human ecosystem on planet Earth. Sustainability that makes sense!

“We want every child in Gibraltar to have the opportunity for that moment.”

The Gibraltar Music Trust is a charitable trust governed by its board of trustees, who are responsible for how the charity is run and how its funds are used.

Charity details

We report each year to the Board of Charity Commissioners for Gibraltar with our accounts and a summary of our activities.